The Curriculum at Fairfield CP School
MISSION STATEMENT
At Fairfield Community Primary School, we aim to provide a safe, secure environment which will promote Happiness and High Standards.
We aim to meet the needs and celebrate the achievements of all pupils, who, through high expectations and high standards of teaching, will reach their own potential regardless of ability.
We offer equal opportunities to all in the belief that Fairfield children will take their places as productive, valued and tolerant members of society.
CURRICULUM INTENT
It is through the curriculum that we aim to meet the educational aspirations of our mission statement. Our curriculum provides the structure for how this can be done and will define:
- What broad concepts we want our children to understand by the time they complete their journey from early years through to secondary transfer;
- What we want our children to know and to be able to do by the time they leave;
- What we are going to teach;
- When we are going to teach it;
- Why we are going to teach it;
- How it builds on what our children already know;
- How it prepares children for what they are going to learn next;
- What is special about what children learn because they attend Fairfield CP School…. in east Bury…. near to Manchester …. in the north west …… in the UK.
“I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I know!”
Our curriculum is based on these principles. It is impossible to split what children learn from how they learn and so our structures of learning are based on the need for the provision of first hand experiences and the experience of “doing”. Another key factor in the way that children learn, particular at Fairfield C.P, is the need for frequent re-cap and embedding of prior learning. Therefore our non- core curriculum has to be sequenced in such a way as to provide very clear links to themes taught in earlier years. Teaching within the core curriculum has to be structured to allow for re-cap in each lesson and at key times during the day (e.g. register work) where previously mastered skills are practised.
Our curriculum aims to meet and go beyond the National Curriculum through particular attention to the pedagogic and social needs of our own school population, identified through in depth monitoring of teaching and learning.
The Early Years are of particular importance at Fairfield as a lack of vocabulary and life experiences are a key hindrance to learning. Our “Continuous Provision” (areas of learning through activities) provides a structure for learning through play which is rigorously planned and which becomes more recognisably formal as children approach Y1. However, even in Y1 a special continuous provision room ensures that this type of learning continues.
We commit to ensuring that children are productive and valued members of society and as such our curriculum places emphasis on our children’s need to be able to express their thoughts and to understand those of others through:
speaking and listening;
being able to express themselves clearly through writing;
being able to read;
being numerate.
These are the “core skills” and children have a right to master them.
Through the wider curriculum our intent is to provide a curriculum which will combine the best of traditional learning with the best of the new. For many of our staff members this means providing children with the type of experience which we were privileged to enjoy as children: those which inspired enquiring minds; an appreciation of the arts; the achievements of our ancestors; the wonders of the world outside of our small mill town; a recognition that all people should be treated equally and time spent with caring, interested adults who can protect children from the dangers which come hand in hand with the advantages that the new technology offers.
Our projects celebrate what each child brings to school e.g an additional language or out of school hobby and of course, a love of performing. We aim to make children aware of their role as global citizens and to care about issues “beyond their street”. We ask them to debate and to be able to argue with empathy and self-belief. We aim that our children know why they are learning in specific areas and to see themselves as “experts” in their fields. For example in following our curriculum Y1 children not only see themselves as historians but many have aspirations to be palaeontologists!! Throughout the school, children must see themselves as artists, geographers and engineers. They must see themselves as citizens, respect fundamental British values and know how to stay fit and healthy. They must develop “cultural capital”.
Finally, we recognise the need to engage our parents and carers with the curriculum. They are the children’s first teachers and spend the highest proportion of time with our pupils.
Each subject has its own statement of intent but each is aimed at developing rounded, caring, hard-working citizens who aspire to happiness and high standards.
If you wish to find about more information about the curriculum being covered at Fairfield, please make an appointment at the main office to speak to a teacher or subject leader.